Biofuels ‘worse than petrol’ for the planet

TRENDY biofuels are worse for the planet than petrol, scientists have claimed.

Bioethanol, biodiesel and other such substances, made from plants such as sugar cane and wheat, are promoted as the greener alternative to fossil fuels.

Biofuel sales have almost quadrupled in the US in recent years and, in the UK, close to 5 per cent of all fuel used on the roads must come from renewable sources.

While petrol and diesel pump damaging carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it had been thought biofuels were carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide released when they are burnt in car engines should be cancelled out by amount sucked out of the air by the plants as they grow.

But US analysis has now concluded that the crops used to produce biofuel only absorb just over a third of the carbon dioxide that is later released by the fuel.

University of Michigan researcher John DeCicco said: ‘This is the first study to carefully examine the carbon on farmland when biofuels are grown. When you look at what’s actually happening on the land, you find that not enough carbon is being removed from the atmosphere to balance what is coming out of the tailpipe.

‘When it comes to the emissions that cause global warming, it turns out that biofuels are worse than gasoline.’

Professor DeCicco said it was time for governments to rethink their support of the green fuels.

Doug Parr, the chief scientist for Greenpeace UK, said: ‘We already knew that biofuels use a lot of land that could be used to grow food. Now this suggests that crop-based biofuels might not be as ecofriendly as their supporters say.

‘We need to know more because it’s not clear from the research where and how this eco-failure comes about and whether it happens in Europe as well as USA.

‘But the Government should not be supporting any increases in crop-based biofuels until this and other questions are resolved.’

However, others pointed out that the research was funded by the US oil industry.

Clare Werner, of the Renewable Energy Association, added that biofuel production is very different in the UK, with more than half of fuel derived from waste.